BY PHUMELELE MKHONTA
MBABANE– Eswatini is, once again, at the top!
Barely a week after Eswatini scooped an award at #COP27, a liSwati man, Chestersment Maphalala, has become one of the two ultimate winners at the Media Hackathon in Sandton, South Africa, which is hosted by the Youth Media Literacy Program.
Maphalala scooped the first prize together with Ramorara Joyce from Lesotho. The two winners came on top among other participants from the SADC (Southern African Development Community) Region and they will each receive prize monies of $10 000 (about E173 146).
The young liSwati man won for his innovation on Tertiary Hub, a news platform- which also got him nominated for the ‘Media Icon’ at the Jumbo Festival.
Media Hackathon, also simply referred to as Hackathon, is part ARISA’s (Advancing Rights in Southern Africa) commitment to improving youth media literacy skills in SADC.
The hosts, the Youth Media Literacy Program, hosted a two-day regional in-person Hackathon in Johannesburg, South Africa from November 15, 2022 to November 16, 2022. The regional event brought together young innovators, journalism students, civic activists and content creators to face off in a winner-takes-all competitive Hackathon.
Trying to get comment from Maphalala proved to be futile as he was unavailable on the network by the time this article was compiled today at 11.15am.
However, Maphalala, before his big win, took to his social media that he was excited to attend the event.
“I am excited to attend a Media Hackathon hosted by Youth Media Literacy Program in Sandton, South Africa,” said Maphalala. He went on to encourage people to vote for him.
